The death of Levi Gibson, President of Levi Gibson Real Estate Ltd. at Doctor’s Hospital on Friday 18th July in Nassau marked the end of an era in Bahamian history.  Mr. Gibson was 94 at the time of his death. One of the Princes of Long Island and The Bahamas passed away. He lived far beyond the proverbial three score and ten.  His life was a remarkable journey from the small settlement in Simms, Long Island to the pinnacle of business and civic success in his country’s capital.

Mr. Gibson’s wife Virginia predeceased him, as did a son who died shortly after childbirth in 1955.  He and his wife adopted a son Philip.  His wife was the former Virginia Symonette Wallace.  They married in 1939 in Miami. She was a nurse. Stunningly, statuesquely beautiful. She graduated at the top of her class.  They set out in life together until death did them part in 1991. Miami was a favourite place and he struck up a firm friendship with his cousin and the rector of St. Agnes Church Miami civil rights leader Fr. Theodore Gibson.

Mr. Gibson was a giant of his times. Many of the younger people today might not understand or appreciate the extent to which in his day he was the “go to” man in the black community, if you wanted something from the establishment. He had enormous power and influence.

Mr. Gibson was born in Simms on 5th April 1914.  He was the son of Osborne Theophilus Gibson and Elizabeth Janer Gibson (nee Taylor) both of Simms, Long Island. He described his father who also lived to well into his 90s as a sailor, businessman, captain who owned the liquor shop and grocery store in Simms.  The young Levi, who left school in Simms at age 14, set out from Simms in 1929 for Nassau, following the well worn path for a job that still exists to day. He was armed only with his education at the Simms All Age School under the Principal G.T. Smith and Teacher R.U. Knowles together with true grit and determination.

Once in Nassau, he decided that he needed more schooling. He took lessons from teachers Cecil Bethel, later a principal at the Government High School and Haldane Jordan.

His first job in Nassau was that of a messenger at the George St. Grocery run by R. G. Thompson.  He then worked with Hatchet Bay Limited and then with Commander John Scaife who ran eight other grocery stores. From there on 22nd November 1930, he moved to work with H.G. Christie, a realtor, developer, Member of the House of Assembly and Chairman of the Development Board, the Ministry of Tourism of its day.  With Mr. Christie, he started as an office boy. It was there that he also got his start in the trucking business and then into real estate.  He worked with Sir Harold for 43 years.   To aid his work with Sir Harold, he obtained a single engine pilots licence in 1954.  At Sir Harold’s request shortly after he joined Sir Harold’s service, Mr. Gibson’s parents gave permission for the young Levi to live with Sir Harold which he did in homes in Queen’s Street, Breezy Ridge, Jungle Cove, Old Fort, Lyford Cay and Cascadilla in New Providence. The relationship was one of mutual trust and respect, so trusted was Mr. Gibson that he was an alternative sole signatory on Sir Harold’s bank account.

From the position with Sir Harold as his majordomo, Mr. Gibson was an observer to many of the major events of the day including the cataclysmic events surrounding the unsolved homicide of the late Sir Harry Oakes.  Of those events, he remembers being given instructions  by Sir Harold  who would play tennis with Sir Harry on the last day of his life to go get his tennis clothes, then park the car at the Golf Club, near Westbourne where Sir Harry lived and where H.G. would spend the night. We all know the rest from history. Breezes Superclubs now sits at the site of Westbourne.  The Golf Club is the Cable Beach Golf Club.

He was a friend of the Duke of Windsor who was governor of The Bahamas from 1940 to 1945 and to Royal Governors who followed the Duke including and especially Sir Robert and Lady Neville whom he and his wife often visited in the United Kingdom on holiday.

 He counted the late Sir Roland Symonette, the country’s first Premier, as amongst his friends as well as the late Prime Minister Sir Lynden O. Pindling.  He was a life long friend of the late Hon. A. F. Adderley and his two sons the Hon. Paul L. Adderley and the late Dr. Francis Adderley.  Bruce Braynen former Member of Parliament was also a lifelong friend. He was proud to say that he had accompanied His Royal Highness Prince Philip on a fishing trip by the Prince in The Bahamas.

Mr. Gibson left the trucking business in 1967, went into real estate full time, and never looked back.  He had a hand in promoting some of the new land developments.  He was a great friend of E.P. Taylor the developer of Lyford Cay. Mr. Taylor attended the official opening of Shan House, Mr. Gibson’s real estate office in Christie Street in Nassau, named after his late wife’s grandmother in 1974.

Mr. Gibson credited the support of the Royal Bank of Canada for assisting his commercial success and formed lasting relationships with its managers including Harold Longley, the first Bahamian to serve as the Manager of the Main Branch Bay Street. He would always say that the Royal Bank had been good to him.

In business, he was intrepid.  Amongst his many projects was a fish processing plant in Salt Pond, Long Island from which he exported crawfish to Europe.

Mr. Gibson’s success in business propelled an involvement in the civic life of The Bahamas.  He was the President of the Kiwanis Club of Nassau in 1962. He was among the organizers of the first Key Club in Nassau in 1967. At the time his old tutor Cecil Bethel was the headmaster at the Government High School.  He recalls Dr. Robin Roberts, Derek Richardson, Dr. Winston Campbell, Dr. Wayde Sawyer, Algernon Allen, Michael and Alaasis Braynen, Dion Hanna and Darville Walkine as amongst former Key Clubbers.  In April 2006, his former colleagues of the Kiwanis Clubs of Nassau honoured him for his drive and leadership of the early Kiwanis in The Bahamas.  He drove the organization along with pioneers such as the late Dave Smalley, Dr. Cleveland Eneas, Dr. Francis Adderley, A. Leon McKinney, Alan Duffield, Dr. Hal Leyland and Robert “Bob” Slatter.  He helped to found the Kiwanis’ Key Clubs in schools throughout the country.

In Kiwanis, a favourite project was the Children’s Emergency Hostel.  He attended its meetings up to year ago.  He formed a lasting bond with Kiwanians Arthur Peet and Phil Stubbs

He was President of the Bahamas Amateur Athletic Association (BAAA) as it then was in 1964 when Sir Durward Knowles and Cecil Cooke won the first Olympic gold medal for The Bahamas.  He stepped down as President of the BAAA in 1967.

He was a founding member and shareholder of The Bahamas Cycle Company Ltd., which today still owns a building on the corner of Bay Street and Victoria Avenue. He and the late Sir Etienne Dupuch and Ned Isaacs founded the St. George’s Athletic Club.  He became its Treasurer in 1949. It was an important sporting and civic club in its day.

In the 1930s, Mr. Gibson played the bass violin as a founding member of the popular local band, the ‘Chocolate Dandies’ under leader Leonard White and including Gladstone Christie, Charles Carey, George Moxey, Lawrence ‘Sticky’ Francis, Willis ‘Pick’ Mather, Isaac Strachan and the famous George Symonette. He recalls how when he used to practice the violin while living with Sir Harold, near the residence of Sir Walter Moore, how annoyed Sir Walter used to be at the practice music.  Gladstone Christie, the late father of former Prime Minister Perry Christie MP and Mr. Gibson were originally in the trucking business together before the senior Mr. Christie went into the taxi business.

Mr. Gibson served on the Anglican Diocesan Council, was a delegate to the Anglican Synod and was a former Treasurer and Vestryman of St. Matthew’s Church.  He was a former director on the Board of the Bank of New Providence, during which time he formed a lasting friendship with banker Wes Bastian.  He also served as a director of ENI Bank for eighteen years.

He counted himself as a founding member of the Long Islanders Association. He was once its public relations chief.  He sold raffle tickets, donated to the library, helped to organize the fair and the regatta. Each year he would take a group of his friends including Sir William Allen, Harold Longley, godson Fred Mitchell, Chief Justice Telford Georges and Mrs. Georges and Sir Gerald and Lady Cash to the island’s regatta. He contributed to St. Peter's Church in Simms where he was christened.

He loved to travel and up until recent years, he took an annual cruise to some exotic spot around the world.  Up to the time of his final hospitalization, he talked about taking yet another cruise on the Queen Mary.

In his long life, he constantly told friends that God had been good to him to raise him up from a poor boy from Long Island to be able to walk with the highest in the land. He had a good relationship with the Members of the House of Assembly for the area especially Peter Graham. He said in the interview in 1993 from which this obituary was constructed “I am a firm believer that no good is ever wasted, particularly if you do it from the heart.”

As for the issue of racial discrimination, the great social issue of his time, he said in the interview that he knew it was there “but it never affected me in any way”

As for regrets, he said that he had none, although he was sorry that he did not get the advantage of growing up his natural born son who died in child birth in 1955.  The doctors had the choice of saving the baby or his wife Virginia. He said he knew that his wife wanted a son and then he added that my wife “was a great asset to me.” That void in their life was filled when Philip Sweeting of New York City came along in July 1956 to good friends Mary and Bruce Sweeting. The Gibsons took him as their charge and ensured his care, nurturing and education.

There are scores of young men and women who can attest to his generosity.  He was godfather to many.  There is a partial list included amongst the survivors at the end of this obituary.

Levi Gibson gave of his time, talents and money with boundless generosity almost to a fault.  He paid anonymously for many student scholarships.  He was a firm believer in education. He was a positive man, a good friend and confidante to many.  He will be sorely missed by those who knew him.

Mr. Gibson was honoured by Her Majesty the Queen in the New Year’s Day honours of 2007 with an MBE for his contribution to the civic and business life of The Bahamas.

In his late years and following his wife’s death, his family life was enriched by the presence and support of Avis Outten and her family.  She was supported in that endeavour by the ever faithful Hebert Burns and Thelma Dill, his housekeeper and in the last years after Mrs. Dill retired by housekeeper Lynette Kerr.  He told Mrs. Dill just before he died that “women have been very kind to me in my life.”

He had a special place in his heart for Charles Gibson, his cousin and his children.   Charles Gibson was one of those entrusted with the legal conduct of his affairs after Mr. Gibson was no longer able to handle them for himself.

At his death at 1 p.m. on Friday 18th July 2008, a long, long way from Simms, Long Island, Levi Hyman Gibson passed from this mortal coil into eternity surrounded by the love of Avis Outten and her family and beloved Charles Gibson and his family and friends including Setella Cox.   A prince of Long Island and The Bahamas is dead.

“Goodnight sweet Prince! And flights of angels sing thee to they rest!”  --Shakespeare’s Hamlet